Obtaining a basic level of competency in dental implant surgery, as well as developing higher skill levels and performing more challenging and advanced dental implant surgical techniques, is usually achieved through practice and repetition. For the new clinician or student, this learning process should ideally be supervised by an expert mentor or instructor in the skill being practiced. Current training methods for dental implant surgical techniques include the use of artificial physical models, cadavers, and selected non-human anatomical parts such as pig jaws and bovine bones. The resources needed for these training sessions and techniques are often expensive and of limited availability such that multiple practice sessions are impractical or extremely difficult. The tremendous variation in specimen availability makes it difficult to provide consistent education or experiences among students in a training environment. Furthermore, it is also almost impossible to match the training specimen with the student's skill level for more than a few course participants. Thus, a cost effective training system is desired that provides consistent, realistic learning experiences that are appropriate for the student's skill level.
Virtual Reality (“VR”) simulators can allow a user to interact with a virtual 3D environment. Different imaging devices and techniques may be used to obtain images of the body or body parts for use in creating a 3D virtual environment. Currently, imaging devices are known to deliver detailed images of both hard and soft tissue, and these images can be used to generate a 3D image of the entire head or other part of the body. These files could conceivably be incorporated into a VR simulator and manipulated with a software program to produce a VR simulator. However, these files are extremely large, and to operate in real time is not practical on a dental or medical office computer, within the foreseeable future. As a result, a need exists for a surgical simulator that will provide a user real time control and virtual simulation.
Moreover, VR systems associated with dentistry allow a user to interface with a virtual dental environment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,001,270 discloses a computer virtual dental game that a user may perform multiple tasks pertaining to different dental conditions within a virtual environment. The program is designed to permit the user to play various games on a monitor associated with different dental conditions by using a keyboard, joystick, or mouse to interact in a virtual environment. In one instance, a user may move or align a tooth to a proper location by using a mouse to point to a tooth and dragging the mouse within a permitted limit to readjust the tooth. Although this allows a user to interact within a 3D environment, the user is merely playing a game and not engaging in realistic virtual training exercises. This computer virtual dental game may be used, such as by children, to increase dental knowledge but is not designed to develop, practice and refine actual surgical skills and techniques for practitioners, nor does it provide actual real life feedback, such as haptic feedback, when interacting in a 3D environment. As a result, a need exists for a surgical simulator that will provide a realistic surgical environment, including real life-like feedback.